A Walk Among The Tombstones ***

“A Walk Among The Tombstones” is not what I expected after seeing the advertisements. The studio is positioning this as another action thriller starring Liam Neeson. They made it look like “Taken” or “Non-Stop” when it is anything but. Yes there are moments where Neeson must shoot his way out but those scenes are few and far between. This is a slow moving, methodical thriller that is entertaining and has some good performances.

Now this movie is not for everyone. It is R rated for good reason. The two sadistic killers depicted here are not opposed to rape and dismemberments. In fact they are a little too casual about it all. The performances by the two actors playing the killers are fairly chilling. David Harbour in particular is almost thrilled by messing with peoples lives. These guys take the extra step of targeting mob families who they know will go to the police. What they didn’t expect is these families to bring in Matthew Scudder (Neeson), a former cop turned shady Private Eye.

The director is Scott Frank who I am not totally familiar with. He also wrote the screenplay. When I looked him up I noticed he has had a hand in writing movies like “The Lookout” and “Minority Report”. I look forward to his work in the future as he is now a proven director.